Marcus Weiss has been a colleague and friend for many years, one that I have upmost respect for his musical intergrety, intelligence and virtuosity. It was a challange to write a concerto for him, one that woudl showcase his abilities and at the same time, with a portion of irony, give him a concerto that places him in a unusual position within the genre itself. Marcus premiered the work last January 28th in Basel with the Basel Sinfonietta under the direction of Baldur Brönnimann and played it a week later at the ECLAT festival in Stutgart with the SWR Sinfonieorchester. The work was commissioned by the Musik-Akademie Basel and the SWR Sinfonieorchester. A video recording of the premiere can be viewed here.
After 11 years and numerous performances with my friends Scott Roller (Violoncello), Wolfgang Fernow (contra bass) and Michael Kiedaisch (drums) I said "good bye" to my Wagner program 14 attempts to love Wagner in November, 2013 in Basel. But in late 2016 I was asked to revive the program. I took some thought, but I decided to dig in, renew the composition, change the name slightly, and start fresh with a new group of young players. The premiere of the new version, now called Do you love Wagner?, took place last March, 2017 at the Hessische Staatstheater Wiesbaden with the wonderful and inspiring musicians Karoline Öhman (violoncello), Aleksander Gabrys (bass) and João Carlos Pacheco (drums). This project is available through the agency Karsten Witt Musikmanagemen.
is now published and available from the Bärenreiter-Verlag.
Written together with the composer Michel Roth, the publication was made possible through the support and contribution from a large team of generous and talented persons: the director of the research department at the Hochschule für Musik Basel Michael Kunkel, the trombonists Andrew Digby, Benny Sluchin, and Toon van Ulsen who critiqued the book in advance, Vinko Globokar who wrote the preface, and my former students who helped with the 92 audio examples, Kevin Austin, Juna Winston, Jon Roskilly (who also did the english translation, bravo!), Antonio Jimenez, and Stephen Menotti.
The book is for mostly for composers, but trombonist could find the information useful. In addition, 5 etudes composed especially for the book by Kevin Juillerat, Roland Moser, Michel Roth, Caspar Johannes Walter, and Nadir Vassena and available for download.
Mike Svoboda will be playing Mixed Feelings (2001) together with the Staatsorchester Stuttgart the German premiere of a concerto for trombone and orchestra, written by Kurt Schwertsik (*1934) at the New Years Concert of the Stuttgarter Oper. Dennis Russel Davis will conduct and there will also be a waltz of Richard Strauss, an ouverture of Hans Werner Henze and a sinfonia of Joseph Haydn. So you can expect a rapturous farewell into this new years’s evening.
On 16.10.2016 Mike Svoboda will premiere a concert for trombone by the composer Georg Friedrich Haas together with the SWR Sinfonieorchester, conducted by Alejo Pérez. This trombone concert was a collaborative mission of the SWR, the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the ORF-Radio Symphonieorchester Wien and funded by the Ernst von Siemens Musik Stiftung.
Mike Svoboda will play this composition of Georg Friedrich Haas at the Wien Modern together with the ORF-Radio Symphonieorchester Wien at the end of 2016 and together with the Sinfonieorchester Basel in June 2018.
